Americans frequently refer to the First Amendment as calling for
Gtyg the “separation of Church and State. ” That term better describes
the struggle that preceded the enactment of the amendment, the struggle
that characterized the time following the legalization of Christianity,
the era of Christendom.

To describe modern America as separating Church and State is to
imply, at least, that Church and State had been united. Christendom
separated the sacred and the secular powers but assumed that both
would cooperate in upholding and promoting Christianity. Because
Christianity was deemed as an indispensable foundation of society, the
State promoted and protected it. An attack on Christianity was seen as
tantamount to treason and was treated as a capital offense. However,
despite the fact that secular and religious authorities agreed on the necessity of religion, they guarded fiercely their own powers and spheres
of authority. This determination on the part of each authority led to
endless conflicts between Church and State in the period between the
disintegration of the Roman Empire in the fifth century and the advent
of the Reformation in the sixteenth. Finding a method to define the
proper boundary between the two, or determining which was supreme,
proved impossible. At times, secular rulers attempted to control and
dominate the Church. At other times, religious leaders claimed supremacy in both Church and State.

In 1517, however, the Reformation begun by Martin Luther shattered
the unity of Western Catholic Christendom. Breaking with Rome and

Notes for this page

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.comPublication information:
Book title: Farewell to Christendom: The Future of Church and State in America.
Contributors: Thomas J. Curry - Author.
Publisher: Oxford University Press.
Place of publication: New York.
Publication year: 2001.
Page number: 23.

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